Two Minnesota homecare providers alleged Saturday that their signatures were forged by their union so it could automatically deduct membership dues from the subsidy checks they got under a state program. The providers alleged that they didn’t even the know the money was being taken out of their checks until months afterwards.

Patricia Johansen, a provider from Fergus Falls, Minn., who helps take care of two special needs grandkids, said she never signed a card authorizing the union, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, to make the deductions. Yet it made the deductions for four months before she caught on. When she complained to an SEIU official, she was told that they had her signature on file.